High-Culture Tamil ‘Sangamam’. Occasion: 2019 Padma Awards. Venue: In The DNA Of Each Doyen

The central government on Friday (25 January) announced the names of 112 prominent personalities for this year’s Padma Awards. Of them, seven from Tamil Nadu have got one of the highest civilian honours the country can bestow.

Much like last year, the inspired Padma Award choices from Tamil Nadu are a huge tribute to the richness of Tamil culture, which is not only a part of the greater Indic cultural matrix, but has also contributed immensely to what the latter is today, and in turn, nourished from very early times by the Indic cultural protoplasm.

1. Narthaki Nataraj (Art-Dance)

Narthaki is a disciple of Thanjavur K P Kittappa Pillai, who was a direct descendant of Thanjavur Quartet Brothers, considered the fathers of Bharatanatyam. Kittappa’s other students include Yamini Krishnamurti, Vyjayanthimala Bali and Sudharani Raghupathy. On Saturday, the 54-year-old transwoman became the first transperson to be awarded a Padma Shri.

Narthaki learnt and practised under Pillai in a gurukul for 14 years and specialised in Thanjavur style Nayaki Bhava tradition. Under Pillai’s tutelage, Narthaki achieved mastery in rare compositions as was practised in ancient Tamil temples. Narthaki’s inspiring story is featured as a lesson in the standard XI textbooks.

Designated male at birth, Narthaki, whose self-identified gender identity is that of a female, had to wage a tough struggle to make a mark in the world of classical dance. She said few men pursued Bharatanatyam at the time as its language, content and form were designed for women.

Narthaki faced discrimination and social ostracisation as her gender identity was not recognised, and fled home at 12. Narthaki performed menial jobs for sustenance, but never gave up pursuing dancing. In 1984, Narthaki began her training under Pillai.

In 2011, she was honoured with the prestigious Sangeet Natak Akademi Award from the President of India, again a first for any transperson.

Along with her friend Shakti Bhaskar, Narthaki Nataraj set up a dance school, Velliyambalam Nadana Kalaikoodam, in Chennai and Madurai. Here, she trains many students from India and abroad in the traditional repertoire of Thanjavur Quartets.

2. Bangaru Adigalar (Spiritualism)

Bangaru Adigalar is a South-Indian spiritual guru. He is the president of the Adiparasakthi Charitable, Medical, Educational and Cultural Trust. He is reverentially addressed as ‘Amma’ by millions of his followers and devotees of the Adiparasakthi Temple.

In 1977, Adigalar established the Adiparasakthi temple at Melmaruvathur, nearly 100 km from Chennai.

Adigalar is credited with a creating spiritual revolution, where all devotees are being treated equally without caste and religious barriers.

Adigalar’s peetam runs a host of educational institutions for the benefit of devotees and the poor, including the Melmaruvathur Adiparasakthi Institute of Medical Science and Research. The trust also conducts several social service programmes such as free medical camps and free marriages.

3. R V Ramani (Medicine-Ophthalmology)

Dr R V Ramani is the founder of Sankara Eye Foundation. A native of Coimbatore, he earned a medical degree from Kasturba Medical College, founded Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Medical Centre in 1974 that led to the Sankara Eye Foundation in 1985. He later expanded the number and currently, there are 10 hospitals across six states in the country.

Ramani’s chain of eye hospitals is today cited as a case study at Harvard Business School. With over 1.8 million free eye surgeries conducted over a span of 40 years, Sankara Eye Foundation runs one of the biggest charitable eye hospitals in India.

The hospital, which started with the objective of taking eye care to the doorsteps of the poor in rural Tamil Nadu, now serves rural poor across the country and treats 80 per cent of its patients free of charge.

The name Sankara is derived from the Sankaracharyas of the Kanchi Kamakoti Mutt, which inspired them to do some work for eye care, says Ramani.

The work of Ramani takes inspiration from another fellow Tamil, Dr V, or the late Dr G Venkataswamy, the founder of Aravind Eye Hospital.

4. Madurai Chinna Pillai (Social Work)

In 1999, when Madurai Chinna Pillai from Pulissery village of Madurai received the first-ever Stree Shakti Puraskar from former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the latter bent down to touch her feet. The 66-year-old farmer continues to be a force of nature and has been awarded the Padma Shri this year.

When the self-help group (SHG) ecosystem had not taken root in India, Chinna Pillai was at the forefront of spreading community-based microfinance for poverty reduction. She single-handedly transformed the lives of thousands of rural women with the Kalanjiam movement. She founded several Kalajiams and also established the first-ever federation of rural women savings and credit group. The Kalanjiam community banking programme runs in the states of Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka now.

Chinna Pillai has been instrumental in freeing women from the stranglehold of money lenders and giving them confidence to be financially aware, organised, and secure.

5. Ramaswami Venkataswami (Medicine-Surgery)

An alumnus of Stanley Medical College and Hospital (SMC), Dr Ramaswami Venkataswami is the founder of Institute for the Research and Rehabilitation of Hand and the Department of Plastic Surgery (IRRH and DPS) in SMC.

Born in the remote hamlet of Kothaneri in Virudhanagar in Tamil Nadu, this son of a farmer and freedom fighter played a pivotal role in popularising plastic surgery and hand trauma care in India, giving millions of people, whose arms got severed in various accidents, hope.